Filed under: Etc., Euro, Government/Legal, BMWA one-time Swiss investment banker has been sent to the slammer for six years after attempting to blackmail BMW heiress Suzanne Klatten with hotel sex tapes.

Helg Sgarbi, 44, admitted in a Munich courtroom that he had defrauded Klatten and three other women of nearly 10 million euros ($12.64M USD). As the story goes, Sgarbi posed as a special envoy for war zones, establishing trust with Klatten (a member of BMW's Quandt family) through a series of text messages, phone calls, and in-person appearances. Klatten would later hand Sgarbi a box containing 7 million euros to cover for a ruse - that he had paralyzed an American youth in a car accident and he needed the money to escape jail time.

Klatten - listed by Forbes as worth nearly $10B - apparently cut the relationship short after he asked for more money, at which point Sgarbi threatened to distribute photos and videos of their sexual encounters to the press, family, and co-workers.